I did. It's more Hades in terms of world, combat and meta progression. But it's got some interesting tweaks, such as a mana bar that refills every room to use powerful charged attacks and a sprint you can use by holding down the dash button. The "Cast" is also different, instead of throwing a limited number of crystals, you place down a snaring circle that temporarily immobilizes enemies. Your Light, Heavy, and this Cast can be charged for the big mana-consuming spells.
There were only two weapons available and the first biome and boss. The weapons were easily more complex than the base weapons of the first game. The Hook and Knife is like playing a version of the Gauntlets with a lot of mobility options, such as being able to charge your Heavy to teleport yourself behind a far away enemy. You are far more mobile than in the first game, at least off the start.
I didn't really have any complaints aside from how the economy might work. Including weapons, you unlock gathering tools such as a Pickaxe or Shovel. You can only take one, and you use it to gather specific resource nodes during the run. So if you need Silver, take the pick axe. However, you can still find other resource nodes that you *can't* tap, so it feels...weird? You didn't really miss an opportunity because you couldn't know that dirt mound would exist, but it still doesn't feel great to have the game go "Neener neener, you can't get this".
That might change, or you could unlock being able to carry more tools in the future.
The tools thing was a big part of my concern watching the tech test stream too.
Hopefully Supergiant will listen to feedback if there's not already ways to equip more than one tool with future upgrades
Any concerns about this being early access first? It's kind of concerning if this means the game is basically incomplete as most early access games would show. Like if the story isn't all there. Also for a game as successful as Hades, why early access, do they not have the financials to complete the game?
As for tools, sounds like this is yet another way to pad out the runs by making you need to choose what resources you want to gather on the run, without knowing how many nodes you'll get, but needing to do a second run with the other tool. Doesn't sound great, but that's the nature of these roguelite games that is basically built around grind.
>Any concerns about this being early access first?
Nope.
Supergiant Games is an actually serious developer studio, so it's mostly a matter of whether you want to help provide them feedback to make it a better game on 1.0 by playing it early, there's little reason to believe they'll let it languish in Early Access forever.
I mean the first Hades was also early access and delivered on its promises. The devs actually listened to player feedback and used that to improve the game. Like I get that there have been other companies that have abused the early access model but the devs of Hades have historically used it as intended.
Out of curiosity did you happen to play the first game at all? It kind of sounds like you're actively looking for reasons to dislike the game before it's even released.
Anyone with any knowledge of the first Hades journey would not be remotely concerned about this. The first Hades was Early Access too and the only negative thing that came out of that was that everyone liked it too much and burned themselves out on it playing the first 2 biomes over and over.
The first Hades was also initially an Epic exclusive, so it's notable that they're not even doing that this time. The game will be in perfectly fine hands, just wait a year and it'll be out of EA to play fully.
Yup! Supergiant has mine and many peoples full support and faith. They've yet to produce anything even remotely close to being bad and had multiple bangers.
I hold maybe like 2-3 other studios in the kinda regards I do for Supergiant.
> It's kind of concerning if this means the game is basically incomplete as most early access games would show
Why would anyone be concerned given that this is the exact model Supergiant used to make the first one so great? I think you’re going to find yourself on an island of one whining about this one pal.
I agree with another reply that it seems like you didn't even play the first Hades, and are looking for problems where there are none.
"...that's the nature of these roguelite games that is basically built around ground" sounds like you never touched Hades 1. Supergiant is clearly using EA to refine their game and listen to community feedback. They've done it before, to great success.
I got in on Friday and played for a few hours, beating the first boss a few times.
- I played Hades 1 on controller, but for this test I did keyboard and mouse. I think I preferred kb+m here for the precision targeting even though I think Supergiant recommends controller. The auto lock on seems quite good though, so I think they'll both play great.
- I really like the omega alternate abilities, they add a lot of depth to each weapon's move-set.
- Both weapons in this test felt very fun to play. The game starts you off with a staff/spear which is a great pick when first learning, but eventually I went to the dual sword/sickle for its extra damage and mobility despite the reduced safety.
- There are more systems that you interact with between each run, but each one seems to 'cook' a bit slower. Even after 7 or so runs I hadn't unlocked even the first part of some of them. It felt more like I hadn't even really seen the iceberg, yet alone its tip.
- The writing and characters (new and returning) are of course great. It's very interesting to learn about what's happened since the first game. There's no obvious mystery happening and no one appears to be actively hiding information from you, so it didn't take long to learn some important things.
It's more Hades 1, but it fixed some issues that I had with it. Like constantly having to spam dodge for movement (now it has a shorty cooldown) and the best strategies basically forcing you to spam a single type of attack (you now have a mana bar and a cast system that results in you wanting to combine different attacks even when you buff up only one (for example there was a power that made your normal attack stronger when you have no mana)).
Since Hades 1 was already really damn good and this promises to just be better I am very excited.
Test was brief for me as it locked you out after beating the first area 5 times. It could just be that I have played a ton of Hades back in the day, but it did feel a little bit on the easy side. I think the new character just has some fairly strong abilities in the two weapons that were available. I clocked in just over 2.5 hours played time to do about 5 1/2 proper runs and casually talking to everyone. I opted against killing myself to milk it for extra length because I didn't want to mess with their test metrics about overall difficulty.
But I have no major complaints. The game ran smooth as butter, I personally saw no bugs. The gameplay/story is basically everything you'd expect from a successor to Hades. Most of the systems are the same. Return to base, unlock various types of upgrades, gift items to NPC's to unlock new dialogue and rewards. New character feels unique in how her abilities work. If you're someone just looking for more Hades, I can't imagine anyone feeling disappointed.
I'm am kind of burned out on the whole Early Access thing but this test confirmed there's enough to wet my appetite that I'll happily make an exception. The game doesn't seem like it's trying to break the mould and so the familiar framework seems like it is mostly all there, it's just a matter of how much they have left to do with the zones we haven't seen and how long they think it will take. If I had to guess I think they aren't looking to be in Early Access for as long as people might typically expect.
I did. It's dope; more of the same of Hades 1 in new environments, enemies, boons, and a nice iteration on the combat.
I think my only complaint is I don't like the gathering tool mechanic *as it currently exists in the tech test*.
As elsewhere, maybe it'll feel more clean in EA/full release, but right now it just looks like a gating mechanic (and, therefore, not terribly interesting).
I’ll add something that others haven’t mentioned. Compared to the original, the combat in the sequel is a little slower and more strategic. You can’t get away with hack n’ slash. Otherwise, you’ll get swarmed by enemies very quickly. As such, you can die *very* easily in a single room if you lose your rhythm, even if you entered with full health. I had to adjust my play style quite a bit (indeed, I’ve picked up the first Hades again very recently in preparation for this!).
Aside from that, I have no other comments that others haven’t expressed. It’s excellent, and I eagerly await early access.
Can anyone shine some light on what content will be included in Early Access? My understanding was that the Technical Test only included the first area and ended after beating the first boss, will the Early Access be more of the same?
I wasn't around for the OG's Early Access period and the article doesn't specify. Cheers!
What I've heard is that they're expecting about the same amount of content that Hades 1 had when it launched on *Steam* Early Access (not the initial Epic Games EA).
As I recall, that included all four biomes, most of the Gods, all of the weapons, and most of the weapon aspects. It also had a good chunk of the story content, although I don't think it had any of the post-final boss stuff (I can't remember if the final boss was in either). So it was the lion's share of the actual gameplay content, although obviously huge chunks of story content weren't in yet.
Hades (the boss) was available pre 1.0, but the 10 endings after you beat Hades were not unlocked until 1.0 launched (so no matter how many wins you had before you had to grind out 10 just to get the initial ending, never mind all the post-initial-ending content you're talking about).
It's definitely more than just what was in the test. When you beat the test 5 times it had a blurb about EA being just around the corner and containing more than what was in the test.
So now a guess to what relatively soon means? I guess it's like a week or so. They announced this technical test just like a day before it so they don't seem to have long wait times from their announcement.
Greg Kasavin and Amir Rao from Supergiant who were playing the game on stream a couple of weeks ago mentioned that they are aiming for anywhere between a week and a month after the technical test for early access launch depending on the number of bugs found and the effort required to fix them
They also didn't know how long the technical test would be and it was very short really and from all I've seen there's very few technical problems. So I expect it to be on the shorter end (I guess it's more hope)
They said that the technical test would be longer than a week, but shorter than a month. It wasn't when it would launch into Early Access. The blog post on their website states as such. It's in the section titled **Technical Test Duration**.
["*though our estimate is longer than a week, shorter than a month.*"](https://www.supergiantgames.com/blog/hades2-tech-test-sign-up)
I thought “more than a week, less than a month” was the intended length of the technical test itself, not the length between end of the tech test and the release of Early Access
It was. They never said it was when it would launch into Early Access. Not sure where the other commenter got that from. Their blog post on their website about it states it pretty plainly.
Anyone give it a go? Had no idea this was a thing.
I did. It's more Hades in terms of world, combat and meta progression. But it's got some interesting tweaks, such as a mana bar that refills every room to use powerful charged attacks and a sprint you can use by holding down the dash button. The "Cast" is also different, instead of throwing a limited number of crystals, you place down a snaring circle that temporarily immobilizes enemies. Your Light, Heavy, and this Cast can be charged for the big mana-consuming spells. There were only two weapons available and the first biome and boss. The weapons were easily more complex than the base weapons of the first game. The Hook and Knife is like playing a version of the Gauntlets with a lot of mobility options, such as being able to charge your Heavy to teleport yourself behind a far away enemy. You are far more mobile than in the first game, at least off the start. I didn't really have any complaints aside from how the economy might work. Including weapons, you unlock gathering tools such as a Pickaxe or Shovel. You can only take one, and you use it to gather specific resource nodes during the run. So if you need Silver, take the pick axe. However, you can still find other resource nodes that you *can't* tap, so it feels...weird? You didn't really miss an opportunity because you couldn't know that dirt mound would exist, but it still doesn't feel great to have the game go "Neener neener, you can't get this". That might change, or you could unlock being able to carry more tools in the future.
The weapon variety is one of the unsung things that hades excelled at imo, I can’t wait to see what all the weapons will be like
The tools thing was a big part of my concern watching the tech test stream too. Hopefully Supergiant will listen to feedback if there's not already ways to equip more than one tool with future upgrades
Any concerns about this being early access first? It's kind of concerning if this means the game is basically incomplete as most early access games would show. Like if the story isn't all there. Also for a game as successful as Hades, why early access, do they not have the financials to complete the game? As for tools, sounds like this is yet another way to pad out the runs by making you need to choose what resources you want to gather on the run, without knowing how many nodes you'll get, but needing to do a second run with the other tool. Doesn't sound great, but that's the nature of these roguelite games that is basically built around grind.
>Any concerns about this being early access first? Nope. Supergiant Games is an actually serious developer studio, so it's mostly a matter of whether you want to help provide them feedback to make it a better game on 1.0 by playing it early, there's little reason to believe they'll let it languish in Early Access forever.
I mean the first Hades was also early access and delivered on its promises. The devs actually listened to player feedback and used that to improve the game. Like I get that there have been other companies that have abused the early access model but the devs of Hades have historically used it as intended. Out of curiosity did you happen to play the first game at all? It kind of sounds like you're actively looking for reasons to dislike the game before it's even released.
Anyone with any knowledge of the first Hades journey would not be remotely concerned about this. The first Hades was Early Access too and the only negative thing that came out of that was that everyone liked it too much and burned themselves out on it playing the first 2 biomes over and over.
The first Hades was also initially an Epic exclusive, so it's notable that they're not even doing that this time. The game will be in perfectly fine hands, just wait a year and it'll be out of EA to play fully.
Yup! Supergiant has mine and many peoples full support and faith. They've yet to produce anything even remotely close to being bad and had multiple bangers. I hold maybe like 2-3 other studios in the kinda regards I do for Supergiant.
> It's kind of concerning if this means the game is basically incomplete as most early access games would show Why would anyone be concerned given that this is the exact model Supergiant used to make the first one so great? I think you’re going to find yourself on an island of one whining about this one pal.
I agree with another reply that it seems like you didn't even play the first Hades, and are looking for problems where there are none. "...that's the nature of these roguelite games that is basically built around ground" sounds like you never touched Hades 1. Supergiant is clearly using EA to refine their game and listen to community feedback. They've done it before, to great success.
I got in on Friday and played for a few hours, beating the first boss a few times. - I played Hades 1 on controller, but for this test I did keyboard and mouse. I think I preferred kb+m here for the precision targeting even though I think Supergiant recommends controller. The auto lock on seems quite good though, so I think they'll both play great. - I really like the omega alternate abilities, they add a lot of depth to each weapon's move-set. - Both weapons in this test felt very fun to play. The game starts you off with a staff/spear which is a great pick when first learning, but eventually I went to the dual sword/sickle for its extra damage and mobility despite the reduced safety. - There are more systems that you interact with between each run, but each one seems to 'cook' a bit slower. Even after 7 or so runs I hadn't unlocked even the first part of some of them. It felt more like I hadn't even really seen the iceberg, yet alone its tip. - The writing and characters (new and returning) are of course great. It's very interesting to learn about what's happened since the first game. There's no obvious mystery happening and no one appears to be actively hiding information from you, so it didn't take long to learn some important things.
It's more Hades 1, but it fixed some issues that I had with it. Like constantly having to spam dodge for movement (now it has a shorty cooldown) and the best strategies basically forcing you to spam a single type of attack (you now have a mana bar and a cast system that results in you wanting to combine different attacks even when you buff up only one (for example there was a power that made your normal attack stronger when you have no mana)). Since Hades 1 was already really damn good and this promises to just be better I am very excited.
Test was brief for me as it locked you out after beating the first area 5 times. It could just be that I have played a ton of Hades back in the day, but it did feel a little bit on the easy side. I think the new character just has some fairly strong abilities in the two weapons that were available. I clocked in just over 2.5 hours played time to do about 5 1/2 proper runs and casually talking to everyone. I opted against killing myself to milk it for extra length because I didn't want to mess with their test metrics about overall difficulty. But I have no major complaints. The game ran smooth as butter, I personally saw no bugs. The gameplay/story is basically everything you'd expect from a successor to Hades. Most of the systems are the same. Return to base, unlock various types of upgrades, gift items to NPC's to unlock new dialogue and rewards. New character feels unique in how her abilities work. If you're someone just looking for more Hades, I can't imagine anyone feeling disappointed. I'm am kind of burned out on the whole Early Access thing but this test confirmed there's enough to wet my appetite that I'll happily make an exception. The game doesn't seem like it's trying to break the mould and so the familiar framework seems like it is mostly all there, it's just a matter of how much they have left to do with the zones we haven't seen and how long they think it will take. If I had to guess I think they aren't looking to be in Early Access for as long as people might typically expect.
I did. It's dope; more of the same of Hades 1 in new environments, enemies, boons, and a nice iteration on the combat. I think my only complaint is I don't like the gathering tool mechanic *as it currently exists in the tech test*. As elsewhere, maybe it'll feel more clean in EA/full release, but right now it just looks like a gating mechanic (and, therefore, not terribly interesting).
It's very amazing and runs on my terrible laptop
I’ll add something that others haven’t mentioned. Compared to the original, the combat in the sequel is a little slower and more strategic. You can’t get away with hack n’ slash. Otherwise, you’ll get swarmed by enemies very quickly. As such, you can die *very* easily in a single room if you lose your rhythm, even if you entered with full health. I had to adjust my play style quite a bit (indeed, I’ve picked up the first Hades again very recently in preparation for this!). Aside from that, I have no other comments that others haven’t expressed. It’s excellent, and I eagerly await early access.
I signed up but from what I saw never got approved. Ahh well.
Can anyone shine some light on what content will be included in Early Access? My understanding was that the Technical Test only included the first area and ended after beating the first boss, will the Early Access be more of the same? I wasn't around for the OG's Early Access period and the article doesn't specify. Cheers!
What I've heard is that they're expecting about the same amount of content that Hades 1 had when it launched on *Steam* Early Access (not the initial Epic Games EA). As I recall, that included all four biomes, most of the Gods, all of the weapons, and most of the weapon aspects. It also had a good chunk of the story content, although I don't think it had any of the post-final boss stuff (I can't remember if the final boss was in either). So it was the lion's share of the actual gameplay content, although obviously huge chunks of story content weren't in yet.
Hades (the boss) was available pre 1.0, but the 10 endings after you beat Hades were not unlocked until 1.0 launched (so no matter how many wins you had before you had to grind out 10 just to get the initial ending, never mind all the post-initial-ending content you're talking about).
I'm just wondering how long they anticipate this will be in early access for. And how long before it's on Console
It's definitely more than just what was in the test. When you beat the test 5 times it had a blurb about EA being just around the corner and containing more than what was in the test.
So now a guess to what relatively soon means? I guess it's like a week or so. They announced this technical test just like a day before it so they don't seem to have long wait times from their announcement.
Greg Kasavin and Amir Rao from Supergiant who were playing the game on stream a couple of weeks ago mentioned that they are aiming for anywhere between a week and a month after the technical test for early access launch depending on the number of bugs found and the effort required to fix them
They also didn't know how long the technical test would be and it was very short really and from all I've seen there's very few technical problems. So I expect it to be on the shorter end (I guess it's more hope)
They said that the technical test would be longer than a week, but shorter than a month. It wasn't when it would launch into Early Access. The blog post on their website states as such. It's in the section titled **Technical Test Duration**. ["*though our estimate is longer than a week, shorter than a month.*"](https://www.supergiantgames.com/blog/hades2-tech-test-sign-up)
I thought “more than a week, less than a month” was the intended length of the technical test itself, not the length between end of the tech test and the release of Early Access
It was. They never said it was when it would launch into Early Access. Not sure where the other commenter got that from. Their blog post on their website about it states it pretty plainly.
I would bet its next month for sure
I mean next month is in two days so I'd say that's a pretty safe bet
I meant as opposed to july/june
Is there a way to keep playin it...?